


LOVELINE

by P5soleilnoir



Category: Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Family, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, p5soleilnoir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22060348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/P5soleilnoir/pseuds/P5soleilnoir
Summary: Sae and Goro are sent to Inaba on a business trip, and they stumble upon a little girl going by the name "Magical Detective Loveline" who asks Goro for his assistance on the case she is working on.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Dojima Nanako
Comments: 12
Kudos: 114
Collections: Quality Persona Fics





	LOVELINE

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for Happy Goro Zine! I'm very happy I could be part of this wonderful project alongside so many talented writers and artists. Check it out [here!](https://twitter.com/HappyGoroZine)
> 
> By the way, I know Goro and Nanako's ages don't make sense at all timeline wise... Please don't think about it too hard...!

_“Next stop: Yasoinaba. Yasoinaba.”  
  
_“Ah! About time we arrived… Akechi-kun, can you please gather our belongings? My bag is very heavy…”  
  
Like one, dozens of people aboard the Shinkansen stood up from their seats, stretching the soreness from their stiff muscles away. Comfortable though the train was, being cooped up in such a small space for several hours was a necessary predicament nobody very much looked forward to and everybody was eager to leave behind, explaining the agitation around as the travelers bustled their way out. One particular family was in such obvious haste that they pushed whoever stood in their path with little to no ceremony… including a certain prosecutor.  
  
“Why you…” Niijima Sae muttered through gritted teeth once her initial surprise wore off, glaring daggers at the backs of the offenders who were already too far to acknowledge her, let alone care. With an annoyed huff, she bent down to retrieve her bag, which she had dropped in the commotion – only to have it presented to her alongside a pleasant smile.  
  
“Are you all right, Sae-san?” Akechi Goro asked, causing Sae’s irritation to melt away in favor of something much lighter and peaceful. When she accepted her bag back, it was with a smile of her own.  
  
“I am. Thank you, Akechi-kun,” she said gratefully and, seeing as they were the last people around, “we should hurry. I would like to have lunch as soon as we drop our belongings at the inn, it’s past one already.”  
  
“Should we? Weren’t the snacks and sandwiches enough?” Akechi-kun wondered as he tilted his head aside, a knowing air creeping up his smile. Sae could practically see the familiar sparkles fly off of his manner; back when they didn’t know each other too well, she would have snapped at him on the spot. Nowadays, she took his teasing remarks in stride – and paid them back tenfold.  
  
“And here I was about to say it’d be my treat, as thanks to you for accompanying me all the way to the countryside… Oh well. I suppose I’ll enjoy this renowned sushi I had in mind all on my own.”  
  
“A-Ah… Come to think of it, I am a bit hungry myself—ah, Sae-san! Wait for me!”  
  
Her sly, self-satisfied smile didn’t fade even as she strode onto the platform with a confident gait and a very flustered Akechi-kun close on her heels. Nearly one hour and a half later, she gave a great sigh of contentment, her stomach feeling comfortably full.  
  
“Well, it wasn’t the sushi I was hoping to get, but it is true what they say—this grilled steak really was good.”  
  
“Someone on the train told me it’s Inaba’s local specialty,” Akechi-kun replied, sipping the last of his drink. “It must have entire generations of expertise behind it to taste so great.”  
  
“Possibly. And while the place itself isn’t…” — she glanced at the very modest food kiosk, her eyes lingering on the greengrocer crates they were using by way of seats and the forgotten ball lying underneath their plank of a table — “the fanciest, I think it serves as an effective lesson to never judge a book by its cover. Tokyo lacks this sort of humble mentality.”  
  
The shopping district of Inaba certainly was humble, especially compared to Tokyo’s extravagant streets and frantic atmosphere. None of the shops around stood out or even tried to; the rare people around boiled down to several children playing marbles under the distracted eyes of siblings and parents alike, busy tending to their stores all the while. An old man was feeding birds nearby, while a cat stretched and yawned from the top of a brick wall, basking in the warm sun of this pleasant summer afternoon. In this quiet and peaceful place, there was one thing that seemed not to belong. The high roof of a huge department store towered over the small sceneries, casting a shadow over it all.  
  
“…I’m sure the locals would agree with you, Sae-san,” Akechi-kun said quietly, contemplating the big red letters on the forefront of the building, as obvious and unmissable as a splotch of bright paint across a greyish painting. “I can just tell they’re unhappy that a department store would open up around here, such a big one no less. The townsfolk probably think Junes is overstepping its boundaries.”  
  
“We’ve only just arrived and your detective instinct is already kicking in? Aren’t you more zealous than usual,” Sae retorted with no ill will, a hint of amusement in her voice, before it suddenly turned serious again. “Well, that’s good—we hardly have time to laze around. This meeting will probably be a handful.”  
  
“And here I thought we’d have the opportunity to enjoy this trip for ourselves and tour at least a little…” Akechi-kun sighed, his shoulders drooping and his eyes downcast in such a way that Sae was reminded of a disappointed puppy.  
  
“You can only blame yourself for assuming this would be a vacation—especially when I told you in advance it was related to work,” she chided, before a sympathetic glaze glossed over her eyes at his crestfallen expression. She knew he wasn’t genuinely upset, but the playful childish act did manage to incite her into throwing him a bone from time to time. “Well, it’s still early. I suppose we can afford to—”  
  
But Akechi-kun wouldn’t find out what she meant to say, for a little girl came across them, accompanied by a tearful boy who hardly seemed any older.  
  
“Um, excuse us…” she said in a timid voice, although she still appeared the braver of the two children when the boy didn’t even dare meet their gazes. “Have you seen a ball somewhere? My friend’s looking for it.”  
  
“A ball? Well, there is one right there,” Sae pointed out as Akechi-kun retrieved the ball sitting underneath their table and handed it to the children.  
  
“Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked kindly, and the gloomy look across the boy instantly cleared. The girl, for her part, was positively illuminating.  
  
“It is! Thank you!” she exclaimed as she hopped on the spot, then turned to her friend. “See, Takeyoshi-kun? I told you we’d find it!”  
  
“You’re right! Thank you, sir! And thank you, Nanako-chan! I don’t know what I’d done without you!” he said, whipping around and running off with a spring to his step and his found toy under the arm. The girl laughed and cupped her palms around her mouth, amplifying her voice so that it would carry to him.  
  
“I told you! It’s Loveline today!”  
  
Both Sae and Akechi-kun smiled. The girl then turned back to face them, her eyes half-moon.  
  
“Thank you so much for helping Takeyoshi-kun,” she said, her tone speaking of genuine gratitude. Her eyes flitted toward Akechi-kun, curiosity glinting within their depths before they morphed into crescents once more. “I just knew you’d be a nice person, you have the same air Risette has! Are you an idol too?”  
  
“An idol?” Akechi-kun echoed, casting a glance at Sae who wore an equally confused expression on her face. “Forgive me, but you seem to be mistaken… I am actually a detective. Ah, it's someone who—”  
  
“I know what a detective is!” she cut off, sounding almost offended at the very idea that she would be clueless regarding this topic. “My dad's one! He works very hard!”  
  
Sae thought it a mere expression at first, but she realized in this moment that the complexities of human language might take root in the truth deeper than she assessed – she could swear there were literal sparkles twinkling across the little girl's eyes. “My dad always tells me detectives are allies of justice! Are you an ally of justice too?”  
  
Akechi-kun apparently couldn't help another look at Sae, who smiled briefly alongside a nod, before he redirecting his sight at the chipper girl. Her excitement was contagious. “Something like that.”  
  
“We work very hard to make sure justice is always served,” Sae added with confidence, figuring prosecutors weren’t that different from detectives. This was all it took for the girl to melt into a round of clapping.  
  
“Oh! Detectives are the best! See, I'm one too!”  
  
As if to illustrate her words, she twirled around, showcasing a very girly uniform adorned with ribbons, pink gloves, and some sort of baseball hat. It was only thanks to the toy magnifying glass in her hand that Sae recognized what she was pretending to be.  
  
“What a lovely detective we have here,” Akechi-kun said fondly, prompting a giggle of delight. “What case are you working on at the moment?”  
  
“I was trying to find out what my big bro is up to those days before I ran into Takeyoshi-kun! He's always going out since summer vacation started and I want to make sure he's not doing anything bad!”  
  
With the way she kept giggling as she spoke, it was clear she knew for a fact her sibling wasn't doing anything bad at all; the mere act of playing pretend seemed to content her plenty. Sae smiled, touched by how innocent she was – until the little girl’s next words wiped the fondness off her face in favor of utter surprise. “Um, Detective-oniisan, do you want to go investigate with me?”  
  
Akechi-kun blinked at the bluntness of her request (or perhaps his new nickname), clearly caught completely off-guard. “Investigate… with you?”  
  
“Mhm! Now that we’ve found Takeyoshi-kun’s ball, let's get back on track and uncover what big bro is up to together! Or maybe you're busy…?”  
  
Intentionally or not, the way her gaze shifted to a pleading kitten's hit its mark. Akechi-kun stared, obviously feeling every last ounce of his inflexibility drain away before it even got the chance to form in his mind – it was like being presented with a request where all the possible answers amounted to 'Gladly,’ 'Of course,’ and 'Coming right up.'  
  
“I don't know if I have the right to do that…” he stammered, sensing Sae sigh in weariness beside him. “Won't your father–”  
  
“Oh, it’ll be fine! I'll tell him you're a friend of big bro's! He'll understand, because you're an ally of justice just like him! That’s why I’m asking for your help in the first place!”  
  
Sae was rather certain this logic was evident only in the eyes of a child rather than a grown-up parent, but then again, this was the countryside: people were keen on trusting others more easily, she supposed. At any rate, the little girl’s excitement was so overwhelming Akechi-kun seemed unable to quite decide how to react, but when she suddenly closed her hand around his, Sae knew he had already lost the battle – an utter knockout, in fact. The stupefaction upon his face was apparent.  
  
“Ah… Um, Sae-san, may I…?” he asked, astonished eyes shifting to perplexed ones. She contemplated him for a long moment, features unfathomable, and just when he was about to stammer again in embarrassment… she smiled.  
  
“You really can't ever stop being Mister Popular, can you?” she teased, and he instinctively grazed his cheek with his index finger. “Be sure to be back by six at the latest. The meeting is scheduled at six thirty.”  
  
“Thanks, Sae-sa—Ah!”  
  
Deaf to his inner plea, Sae only watched with an amused smile as Akechi-kun was dragged by the little girl away, her enthusiasm so great he couldn't find it in him to halt or even slow down.  
  
“Um, where are we going?” Goro asked after several minutes, almost certain they had walked down the entirety of the shopping district by now.  
  
“To where I think my big bro is!” she exclaimed while skipping happily, until she paused and clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you what my name is! Dad would be mad if he knew.”  
  
She turned to face him in full. Goro had never seen such a beaming face before. “I’m Magical Detective Loveline! …But that’s only when I’m investigating, like today. I’m actually Dojima Nanako. Nice to meet you!”  
  
“Likewise,” Goro said, unable to help another smile as they resumed their walk. “My name is Akechi Goro. I’m here in Inaba on a business trip with my superior, Niijima Sae-san. She’s a prosecutor.”  
  
“Pro-ce-kyu-torr?” she echoed, bringing a finger to her chin in a gesture of incomprehension.  
  
“Someone who makes sure criminals don’t escape justice,” Goro explained, and Nanako-chan’s eyes brightened at once.  
  
“Ah! So you and the beautiful lady team up to arrest bad people, right?”  
  
“That’s right,” Goro said, nodding his approval. “You catch on fast, Nanako-chan. You have what it takes to be a great detective one day.”  
  
Nanako-chan giggled sheepishly, but there was no failing to notice the way her chest puffed with pride. “It’s all thanks to my big bro! Before he arrived, I was very shy and sad, and Dad was sad too… but now that he’s here, he’s helping me be more confident!”  
  
She gave another giggle. Her joy was so great it was nearly visible: a bright, beautiful aura all around her, the glow of happiness itself.  
  
“What about your mother?” Goro asked out of curiosity, only to feel a slight tinge of pain in his heart as Nanako-chan’s face fell a little. He knew what she was going to say even before she opened her mouth.  
  
“My mom died in an accident when I was little. I used to feel very lonely without her…” — her cheerfulness returned then, translating into a bigger smile — “but now I have big bro to cheer me up. And Dad’s been making lots of efforts to be home more often. So I’m not sad anymore!”  
  
“That’s wonderful, Nanako-chan,” Goro said, trying to ignore the sensation in his heart that had now turned into a stronger pinch. “I can tell that your family cares a lot about you.”  
  
“Mh-mh! Anyway, Goro-oniichan, let’s go!”  
  
“Yes, let’s—wait, huh?!”  
  
Nanako-chan’s overwhelming enthusiasm, however bright it shone, slowly but surely vaned a little as the hours went by. No matter where the pair went, an energetic little girl dragging a much more perplexed teenager around, they couldn’t find a single trace of her brother anywhere. Goro felt like they had covered the entirety of Inaba by this point, which didn’t mean much given how small the town was, but the fact remained he was positively exhausted.  
  
“Could your brother be out of town?” Goro wondered to a disappointed Nanako-chan as she fixed her magnifying glass in her hands. She shook her head, her excitement long gone.  
  
“There’s Okina City and the beach not too far, but he would have told me if he went there… No, I’m sure he’s in Inaba because I heard him tell his friends on the phone this morning to meet at Junes.”  
  
“But he wasn’t there either,” Goro pointed out. “Maybe we should have asked someone who knows your brother, like his friends or—”  
  
“That’s the thing!” Nanako-chan interrupted in a little outburst. “It wasn’t just big bro! We didn’t see any of his friends at all! Not even Teddie!”  
  
“Teddie?” Goro repeated, his eyes taking on a rounder shape.  
  
“Teddie’s my friend… and he’s Junes’ mascot, too. That’s why it’s weird he’s not there either, because he should be working…”  
  
Goro hummed to himself in thought, pondering the matter. It did seem strange that Junes’ mascot would vanish on the job, let alone several other people related to one another in the same time span.  
  
“Really… I’m not a good detective at all if I can’t even figure out where my big bro is,” she lamented, dragging herself to a low brick wall and sitting down dejectedly. “I’m nothing like Loveline.”  
  
She removed her cap as she spoke, leaving it aside. Her head drooped onto her chest, like she didn’t have the motivation to hold herself straight anymore. Goro stared at her, and then—  
  
“That’s not true, Nanako-chan.”  
  
Nanako-chan raised surprised eyes to see Goro sit down by her side. The smile he was giving her was possibly the kindest he had ever shown.  
  
“You’re perseverant, extremely clever, and hard-working. We only just met, but you showed me in those few hours enough for me to notice all that. And I know for a fact anyone would back me up if asked.”  
  
Goro’s gaze mellowed even more. Nanako-chan, for her part, seemed captivated, unable to make so much as a sound.  
  
“I told you earlier you have what it takes to be a great detective someday, and I still believe it. So please, cheer up—you won’t give up so easily, now will you, Loveline?”  
  
His encouragement was accompanied by a playful wink. Nanako-chan gaped at him, feeling her cap placed upon her head again, and the next moment, Goro was letting out an exclamation of surprise: she had tackled him into a tight, tight hug.  
  
“A-Ah! Na, Nanako-chan—can’t breathe—”  
  
Nanako-chan didn’t let go, but she wasn’t deaf to his plea and slackened her grip on him a little. Her face remained buried in his chest, and for a moment Goro feared that she was about to start crying; it was with relief washing over him that he witnessed the return of her radiant smile as she finally lifted her head.  
  
“Goro-oniichan… Thank you! Thank you so much!”  
  
“You know, Nanako-chan…” Goro said in a somewhat nervous tone, feeling quite uncomfortable and at an utter loss of what he should do in this very brand new type of situation. “You don’t have to call me that.”  
  
But Nanako-chan wasn’t listening anymore, too brimming with contentment to pay him attention. Goro looked at her, lips parted slightly, until his eyes took on a crescent shape of their own.  
  
“Okay, let’s get back to looking for big bro!” Nanako-chan exclaimed as she leapt to her feet, leading Goro by the hand and apparently not intending to let go anytime soon – much to Goro’s unease once more. He didn’t quite get used to the unfamiliar warmth around his fingers even as they found themselves back to the shopping district. Sae-san, of course, was long gone, but the later time didn’t really bring more life to the street – it was still as quiet and muted as it was two hours earlier. Goro didn’t miss the lingering glance on Nanako-chan’s part as they passed by an ice cream stand, and he broke their walk.  
  
“Do you want one?” he asked and, before she had time to answer, paced up to the clerk. “Hello. Two… Topsicles, please?”  
  
“Ah! Goro-oniichan, are you sure?” Nanako-chan wondered, clearly sheepish, but Goro responded only with a smile and handed one of his purchases to her. “Oh, thank you! Topsicles are the best in summer!”  
  
“I take it they’re very popular in Inaba? We don’t have anything like those in Tokyo,” Goro said as they went on their way, enjoying their Topsicles – they were refreshing and sweet.  
  
“Really? That’s a shame, they’re so good! I like to have one with big bro and Dad when we go to the—”  
  
All of a sudden, Nanako-chan froze in her tracks, letting go of Goro’s hand at once. She gaped at no one, realization obviously dawning on her, before being overcome by an agitation so great she nearly gave a high-pitched cry.  
  
“The flood plain! I can’t believe I forgot to check there! Quick, Goro-oniichan!”  
  
And by the time he even processed her words, she was already gripping him by the hand again, guiding him as fast as her legs could manage. With the suddenness of it all, Goro dropped the last of his Topsicle to the ground, but there was no stopping Nanako-chan now. Soon enough, buildings stepped aside for greenery and the telltale singing of crickets in summer. The humidity of water made its way to Goro’s sense of smell next, followed by the unfolding of a remote scenery in which the river stretching alongside the bank was the focal point.  
  
“It’s quite the beautiful place,” Goro couldn’t help but marvel as he swept his eyes across his surroundings, but he was quickly yanked out of his contemplation when Nanako-chan tugged at his hand. Not that he was surprised, for there was not a trace of anyone around, her brother or otherwise.  
  
“Maybe he’s by the riverbank,” she said bravely, gesturing at the lower level below where green grass and water met. “Let’s go and see!”  
  
They didn’t even reach the midpoint of the stairs when Nanako-chan gasped in shock. Goro’s eyes narrowed, immediately noticing what she had – a medium-sized dog was perched atop a rock across the stream, utterly paralyzed by fear. It was wearing a collar, making it clear it had a home and was evidently not where it should be. Goro and Nanako-chan approached the edge of the bank, their gazes meeting a distressed one.  
  
“He looks so scared,” Nanako-chan pointed out miserably as the dog let out a whimper, sounding very much like she was on the verge of tears herself. “We have to save him!”  
  
She took a step forward, only to immediately stop dead – Goro had extended his arm to obstruct her way before she could give in to her recklessness.  
  
“Stop, Nanako-chan. It's dangerous.”  
  
“But… The poor dog!” she exclaimed, raising a teary gaze at him. “He's going to drown if we don't do anything!”  
  
Sure enough, the dog seemed one wrong step away from slipping off the rock and fall prey to the water – it kept whining as it curled up into even smaller a ball, frame noticeably overtaken by tremors.  
  
“But you going into the water is much too risky,” Goro countered, face etched with a serious frown. “I can't allow it.”  
  
Nanako-chan looked as though she had been suddenly yelled at. Her wide eyes spoke of betrayal and shock, and when she eventually let them fall to the ground, her voice was but a mere murmur. “So… does that mean we won't help him…?”  
  
“Of course we will,” Goro replied at once, immediately relaxing his features in favor of a sparkling wink. “Because this is what allies of justice do.”  
  
Her reaction was such that Goro couldn't help being taken aback; he had never seen someone's expression shift from pitiful to outright radiant in a matter of a split second. Nanako-chan's face seemed quite literally alight with happiness, beaming so brightly she very well might give the sun itself a run for its money.  
  
Unable to repress a smile of his own from showing on his lips, Goro slipped off his shoes and removed his socks. He knew rolling up his pants would be futile, which is why he didn't bother; he did, however, trust Nanako-chan with his wallet and cell phone.  
  
“Please be careful, Goro-oniichan…” she muttered, her eyes conveying her worry even more plainly than her words ever could. He responded with a reassuring smile.  
  
The first thing he thought as the water grazed his bare feet was how cold it was – enough to elicit a shudder out of him alongside an eruption of goosebumps all over his skin. But if he felt a chill, then that poor dog was probably freezing all over; it was this realization that drove him forward. Taking care not to slip, he trod further down the water, his face contorting slightly upon feeling the numerous rocks at the bottom dig into his feet with each of his steps. He was starting to regret discarding his shoes.  
  
“Are you okay?” came Nanako-chan's voice to his back – his discomfort must have showed even from the distance between them.  
  
“I'm fine,” he replied, which wasn't a lie despite the crease to his brow. He was now about waist deep into the river, though it didn't seem to get any deeper past that point. The dog's whimpers carried louder upon his approach, as if it were actually pleading for help. Goro was within arm' s reach now—  
  
“Ah! You got him!”  
  
In one strenuous motion, Goro scooped the dog into his arms and held it close. It was a shivering ball by that point, scared beyond measure – so scared, in fact, that it violently writhed and thrashed in Goro's embrace, finally succumbing to panic.  
  
“No! Don't struggle, doggie!” Nanako shouted, urgency abound in every syllable. “We're here to— _Goro-oniichan!”  
  
_Her reassurance ended on a cry. With how desperate the dog's flailing was, it nearly caused Goro to lose his balance and send the two of them underwater – Goro bit his lip and stomped his foot one step backward for balance, swallowing a hiss of pain upon landing on a particularly sharp rock.  
  
“Shh,” he whispered, patting what he could of the dog's back in the hopes to help it relax, “you're fine, you're okay…”  
  
Something about the gentle, very quiet tone of his voice seemed to have an effect on the dog, whose jerks and jolts slowly but surely eased with each of Goro's murmurs. This whole process took several minutes before it finally calmed down enough to be carried to safety without issue, although it did whine a couple of times along the way – Goro made sure to reassure it each time it happened. In spite of the dog's weight slowing him down, not to mention its bulk keeping his arms busy and preventing him from waving them for balance in case he fell, retracing his way back toward the riverbank was easier than his way front. There was no more urgency pressuring him, no more dark concern that the dog might slip from its rock and drown before he reached it, only raw certainty that the most difficult part was already behind them. Just a few more steps and they would be—  
  
“You did it! _You did it!”  
  
_Greeted by Nanako-chan’s squeals of joy as she hopped up and down, the pair finally reached the riverbank; the dog, however, kept trembling with fear even after it shook the water off its fur the moment Goro laid it on solid ground, clearly deeply affected by the ordeal. Goro knelt down and reached out to cup its head, his touch gentle like one would use with a newborn child.  
  
“There, there, you don't need to be scared anymore,” he soothed, running his thumb and index finger in between the dog's ears in a slow, relaxing massage. “Good boy. Good boy.”  
  
With each caress, the dog’s quivers quelled down, before they came to a stop. Goro’s efforts were rewarded with a slight twitch of the tail from the dog, until it outright wagged left and right at a fast pace – the next moment, the dog was licking all over Goro’s face, eager to show its gratitude and probably feeling like no amount of demonstration would be enough. Goro, however, thought otherwise; the uncontrollable giggles escaping him could attest to that.  
  
“Ah! Stop—that tickles—!”  
  
“You made a new friend, Goro-oniichan!” Nanako-chan chirped, clapping her hands in joy. Goro tried to speak, but what he wanted to say was drowned in his bursts of laughter. He had no choice but to push the dog away to finally be able to catch his breath. His shoulders still shaking slightly with some last remnants of laughter, he checked the dog’s collar, relieved that an address was engraved there.  
  
“Ah! That’s very close!” Nanako-chan said excitedly, before giving the dog a big hug. “Let’s take him home, okay?”  
  
“Of course,” Goro assured sincerely, straightening up – before a swift pain slashed across his foot. The grass underneath it was stained in blood, and more trickled down as Goro examined the long cut upon his skin.  
  
“You’re hurt!” Nanako-chan cried out, already coming by his side. Goro merely shrugged it off and put his socks and shoes back on, not especially fond of the squelching sensation with each of his steps or even the slight jolt of pain that came with them, but he would live.  
  
“I’m fine, Nanako-chan, it’s just a cut. I’ll put a bandage on it as soon as I return to the inn—I should hurry, by the way, it’s nearly 6:30… Let’s bring it back to its owner and then, I’ll have to leave you, Nanako-chan…”  
  
“…Okay,” she said, a bit forlorn. A short while later, they were greeted by a woman whose tears seemed to know no end, no matter how much she covered her precious dog in kisses which it returned in kind.  
  
“Oh goodness, I can’t believe this! First my baby gets lost, then I hear he very nearly drowned…” she quavered, her speech so overtaken by wails that it was difficult to make out exactly what she was saying. “But he is safe and sound, all thanks to you…”  
  
She had turned to look at them straight in the eye, her own gaze unwavering despite the tremor to her lip.  
  
“To think I even asked the police to find my baby, and they couldn’t do anything… I don’t know how I can ever repay you… I don’t…”  
  
Her gratitude seemed beyond words, but she bravely attempted to convey it anyway. Nanako-chan was smiling a smile of pure bliss, while Goro simply shook his head.  
  
“This young lady here was the one to find your dog,” he said, and Nanako-chan startled badly before shooting him a wide, very round look. “If she hadn’t, we might have not made it in time.”  
  
“Is that so? Dear God, someone must have taken pity on my baby and I since we were blessed enough to have you come our way…” the woman replied, giving Nanako-chan her entire tenderness. “Thank you… You are our guardian angel.”  
  
Nanako-chan had no more words after that. It was only when the lady finally closed the door to her home after tearful goodbyes that she faced Goro, looking timid like a kitten again. Goro, for his part, didn’t see what the big deal was.  
  
“See, Nanako-chan? I told you you’d be a great detective. You brought this dog back to its owner when even the police couldn’t do it, and you made her immensely happy in the process. You need to believe in yourself mo—ah!”  
  
By way of answer, Nanako-chan merely threw herself in his arms again. There was no need for anything else.  
  
  
  
  
“Where on Earth were you? I was getting worri—Akechi-kun, what happened?!”  
  
Truth be told, Goro had expected Sae-san would be angry at him, which is why he didn’t blame her in the least. She seemed more concerned, however, about why he was soaked from the waist down, already throwing one of her towels at him and urging him to get changed as soon as he regained his room all the while.  
  
“Ah… I can explain, Sae-san… You see, I…”  
  
Sae-san cracked several fond smiles during his recollection, which he interpreted as a good sign. When he was done, she had a faraway look in her eyes.  
  
“That sounds like such a lovely girl, at any rate. I’m glad her brother made it back safely,” she said, uncapping her bottle of alcohol to disinfect his wound the moment he even started mentioning it.  
  
“She was—ow!—jumping for joy when she found out,” Goro replied between hisses, which Sae-san merely rolled her eyes at. “She even grabbed the hands of her friend’s father in delight when he told her. It’s strange though… he said he saw her brother with all of his friends at Junes, but we didn’t run into them at all when we went ourselves…”  
  
“Stay still,” she cut off, soaking her cotton pad with much more alcohol than Goro judged it necessary in his opinion. “You probably missed each other by a few minutes. I wouldn’t overthink it.”  
  
Goro wasn’t convinced, but before he had time to voice his thoughts, another sting seared at his foot and stole his speech away in favor of another yelp. It was, once again, utterly ignored.  
  
“But you’ve made a very sweet friend, I see. It’s a shame we’re going to be very busy starting tonight, otherwise you could have spent more time with her.”  
  
“Well…”  
  
Goro’s somewhat fleeting gaze stayed away from her curious own. Instinctively, he brought his index finger to graze his cheek, like he did each time he was feeling embarrassed.  
  
“She, um… might have made me promise to play with her again before I returned to Tokyo…” he explained in a tiny voice rather unlike his regular one, all too aware Sae-san wouldn’t be impressed. “She was thrilled when I told her we would be staying at the Amagi Inn… The owners’ daughter is apparently a friend of her big brother, and…”  
  
Sae-san couldn’t help another roll of her eyes. It only served to drive the knife further in. “You do remember we are not on a vacation, do you? …It’s really troublesome how you always do as you please regardless of what you’re told.”  
  
Goro chuckled in a poor attempt at disguising his sheepishness. His shoulders then immediately drooped. “…I’ll be more careful from now on.”  
  
Bashful as he was, he might have realized Sae wasn’t truly feeling as annoyed as she claimed if he had met her gaze then. The way he had looked so happy when he told her the story of his day was something she had rarely witnessed. In fact, she couldn’t recall the last time he had shown this face to her, let alone anyone else. It was a bright, radiant canvas, shiny eyes forming two perfect crescents as he related how the little girl embraced him, how the dog showered him in gratitude, how that woman thanked them dearly… His face was alight with true bliss.  
  
Sae gave a little chuckle. It suited him.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Also, last but not least... Happy New Year 2020!!!


End file.
